1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to injectors and nozzles for spaying liquids, and more particularly to pressure atomizers such as for use in fuel injectors of gas turbine engines.
2. Description of Related Art
A variety of devices are known for producing a spray from a pressurized liquid. Many of these are pressure atomizers designed to atomize fuel, water, or other liquids into a fine spray of droplets. Pressure atomizers can be made relatively small and therefore lend themselves to applications where space is limited. An exemplary pressure atomizer or nozzle is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,680,793 to Tate et al.
In traditional configurations, the smaller a pressure atomizer nozzle is, the narrower its spray angle will be because of typical difficulties in achieving wide spray angles with small size pressure atomizers. In certain applications such as gas turbine engines, there can be a need for a wide spray angle but size constraints that require a small sized atomizer. In such situations, traditional atomizer designs create a need to compromise between nozzle size and maximum spray angle, which has heretofore limited design choices and therefore performance.
Such conventional methods and systems have generally been considered satisfactory for their intended purpose. However, there is still a need in the art for pressure atomizers that allow for improved spray angle and decreased size. There also remains a need in the art for such pressure atomizers that are easy to make and use. The present invention provides a solution for these problems.